Black and Hispanic Americans See Their Origins as Central to Who They Are, Less So for White Adults
About half of Americans see their identity reflected very well in the census’s race and ethnicity questions.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
About half of Americans see their identity reflected very well in the census’s race and ethnicity questions.
Racial categories, which have been on every U.S. census, have changed from decade to decade, reflecting the politics and science of the times.
Most Americans (65%) – including majorities across racial and ethnic groups – say it has become more common for people to express racist or racially insensitive views since Trump was elected president.
Many Americans say the country hasn’t gone far enough in giving black people equal rights with whites. Most believe slavery continues to impact black people’s status.
While a slight majority of Americans think it is generally unacceptable to use blackface in a Halloween costume, about one-in-three say it is acceptable at least sometimes.
Establishing the interviewer’s perceived race or ethnicity is essential to understanding how it might affect the respondent’s answers to survey questions.
In 2015, 17% of all U.S. newlyweds had a spouse of a different race or ethnicity, marking more than a fivefold increase since 1967, when the landmark Supreme Court case legalized interracial marriage.
There were 55.3 million Hispanics in the United States in 2014, comprising 17.3% of the total U.S. population.
Natural increase (births minus deaths) accounted for 78% of the total change in the U.S. Hispanic population from 2012 to 2013, whereas migration accounted for about 61% of the total change in the Asian-American population.
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